TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Talyn Mirzakhanian, City Manager
FROM:
Joe DeFrancesco, Interim Public Works Director
Gilbert Gamboa, City Engineer
Sean Roberts, Field Operations Manager
Nicky Petroff, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Downtown Hazardous Spill Emergency Response Report (Unbudgeted) (Interim Public Works Director DeFrancesco).
RECEIVE AND FILE
Body
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RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council receive and file this report regarding the May 20, 2026, downtown hazardous spill emergency response.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
The emergency hazardous spill response and cleanup effort has resulted in costs associated with hazardous material containment, roadway treatment, environmental mitigation, traffic control, waste disposal, and emergency response operations.
The City currently maintains an on-call Professional Services Agreement with Hunter Consulting, Inc., dba HCI Environmental & Engineering Services ("HCI"), with an existing contract authority of $74,900. At this time, staff have not received final invoices for the emergency response and cleanup operations, and as a result, they are unable to assess the overall financial impact of the incident. In the event the services performed by HCI exceeds the remaining funds in the contract, staff will seek ratification from the Council at a future meeting.
Staff will continue to monitor incident-related costs and seek cost recovery from the owner of the commercial vehicle, the business from which the cooking oil originated, or their respective insurance carriers.
BACKGROUND:
On May 20, 2026, two 55-gallon drums of used cooking oil detached from a commercial vehicle and ruptured in the downtown Manhattan Beach area, releasing a substantial quantity of oil onto public roadways. The spill created an immediate hazardous condition impacting roadway safety, pedestrian access, traffic circulation, and pote...
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